Iron Man #59 (1973)

I think it was Marvel who first started having heroes hate being heroes. In this issue, that old annoying psychic Marianne Rogers isn’t doing well and Tony blames himself-because he’s a complete narcissist-and punches his own helmet.

Then Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts get into a fight about how she should settle down and have his babies, before Firebrand returns. He’s still got a huge grudge against Iron Man and the military industrial complex, so he takes Tony Stark hostage to lure Iron Man into battle.

Then, it what may be the weirdest deathtrap ever, Firebrand forces Iron Man to bury himself alive.

Brand. WTF??? He’s in ARMOR. He’s TOTALLY ENCASED. Iron Man simply tunnels out. Then Iron Man, instead of just popping Firebrand in the head from behind with a repulsor, creates Iron Man duplicates to confuse him and takes him on face to face.

In the end, Firebrand’s sister is hurt by a Firebrand misfire, and Iron Man rushes her to the hospital. So now I guess Firebrand owes him one.

Creators: Mike Friedrich and George Tuska
Grade: B-. A solid, above-average issue. It’s interesting that Firebrand always seems to make for a good Iron Man comic.
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